Can Democrats fight?

Congressman Chris Deluzio on economic populism and the future of his party

Congressman Chris Deluzio is a progressive Democrat who represents PA-17, the district that stretches from the northwest suburbs of Pittsburgh to the Ohio border. The county closely mirrors the national electorate: His constituents voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012, backed Trump in 2016, turned out for Biden in 2020, and supported Trump this November — and reelected Deluzio.

We asked Rep. Deluzio about how even as his constituents shifted back to the right he was able to break through with a progressive, pro-labor message; and why he thinks only an embrace of economic populism — and a willingness to name the bad guys — can win victories for the Democratic Party.

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What are you doing that other Democrats are not doing? And you know it's not like you changed your approach or your core philosophy to win this race. What did you do differently? 

Well, I'm honored. I won and my constituents sent me back. I think I've got the best district in the country. And I will tell you, from Western Pennsylvania, I don't run around wearing any kind of specific label about what kind of Rust Belt or Western Pennsylvania Democrat I am. But I'm also not shy at all about talking about the forces that are making life worse for folks. I talk a lot about monopolies and the way that corporate power has hurt people. I talk a lot about how workers have lost power on the job because of these attacks on unions. I talk about what my region and others like ours saw through decades of lousy trade deals that were supposed to bring down costs to make life better for us.

And in fact, we saw jobs go away and costs are going up. And I don't talk about those things as little issues on the side. The economic message, the willingness to fight, for us is front and center. And one of the things that I think my party needs to do better about is we often look for this win-win framing. And sometimes that's appropriate. But you know sometimes there are bad guys who are making life worse for people, and you’ve got to beat the hell out of them.

And you’ve got to make sure folks understand who you're fighting for and who you're fighting against. And we could use a little more of that. 

Do you think the party nationally failed to make that case, failed to identify a bad guy, or did they pick the wrong bad guy?